“This is now become or becoming the anthem for many people and their prayer throughout the whole world,” said Gardner, who has received social media shoutouts from music celebrities of various genres — from R&B singer Alicia Keys to gospel artist Yolanda Adams to rapper Eve.
Gardner said what he intended as an affirmation for others has become one for him as well, as he marks 40 years since he began singing and 35 years in ministry.
Around age 5, hymns were his music of choice. At the age of 6, he loved singing Michael Jackson’s “We Are the World,” recalling the pop star’s collaboration with artists of numerous genres in a melody he thought was akin to gospel.
As a young performer, he determined he was going to keep his music in the gospel realm despite opportunities to go in other directions.
“I even had offers from major labels when I was younger, and a lot of them wanted me to change my style, not say Jesus in the song, and for me, what would it profit me to gain the world and lose my soul?” he said, paraphrasing the Gospel of Matthew.
Sherwin Gardner performs in the Bahamas in 2022. (Courtesy photo)
“So I pressed through those days, to be where I am and to be able to now spread the gospel at a different level.”
In the 1990s, he chose a genre that was not readily embraced.
“I started to sing gospel reggae in a time when gospel reggae was not accepted in the Caribbean,” he said. “So there’s a lot of closed doors. A lot of places we would go and people would say, ‘We don’t want this music in the church.’”
Eventually, views changed, he said, as critics saw young people being drawn to the music.
During his D.C.-area tour, Gardner visited the Warner Music/Blavatnik Center for Music Business at Howard University, where he spoke in an open forum with undergraduate and graduate students who peppered him with questions about how his song went viral and how to land a record deal.
Jasmine Young, director of the center that is part of the Warner Music conglomerate that includes the division distributing Gardner’s new song, called the tune’s trajectory a “miracle” for the Trinidadian, who has maintained his musical mission for so many years.
Sherwin Gardner, third from right, visits students and staff at Howard University in Washington, D.C., during a recent tour. (Photo courtesy Howard University)
“I have worked with major artists across the gamut, and what impressed me the most about him was that he is intent on staying on his faith-based track,” said the 30-year veteran in the music industry — and a member of the Pentecostal church led by gospel singer Bishop Hezekiah Walker.
“He’s not trying to camouflage his music to make it seem mainstream or pop or anything else. He just wants you to know that it is faith-based and God is the center of it,” Young said.
Gardner easily ticks off the U.S. gospel musicians who have made an impression on him.
“My top five will always be Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, Byron Cage, Israel Houghton and then Shirley Caesar because, you know, your mother always played Shirley Caesar,” he said. “But Byron Cage was one of them who I would say shaped my style.”
While some reggae music tends to play “the same thing over and over,” he said he likes to include transitions and progressions to add shape to the sound of a song.
